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Letter says UO drops case against student

By Saul Hubbard

The Register-Guard

Appeared in print: Friday, Aug. 29, 2014, page A1

The University of Oregon has dropped all five student conduct charges against a female student for a sexually suggestive comment she shouted at two other students earlier this summer, according to a national student-rights group that has been monitoring the case.

On Thursday, Philadelphia-based Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, or FIRE, released a letter it said was sent Wednesday by a UO administrator to the student informing her that “no action would be taken” on the charges.

UO spokeswoman Julie Brown said she couldn’t confirm whether the charges had been dropped. The letter FIRE released, however, “is consistent with the type of letter” that a UO student facing discipline could receive, Brown said.

Brown also said she couldn’t comment on why the university might have dropped the charges or provide any additional information about the incident in question, citing the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which prohibits most schools from publicly releasing students’ “education records.”

The student, who wishes to remain anonymous, was facing charges of harassment, disruption, and disorderly conduct, and of breaking the university’s housing rules, according to a letter she received from a UO official on June 13. The letter didn’t specify what penalties the student faced, but said she needed to resolve the matter with a university administrator or to go before a “student conduct and community standards” panel made up of students, university staff and faculty by October 13.

The case drew the attention of FIRE, who claimed the charges blatantly violated the student’s free-speech rights. FIRE reported the matter publicly for the first time on Tuesday.

According to FIRE’s account, the student was in trouble for shouting from a dorm room window “I hit it first” at a male and female who were walking by. The phrase, used in some youth circles — and the title of a 2013 R&B song — suggests the shouter had already had sex with the male student.

The woman of the couple responded with two profanities and the couple then reported the “I hit it first” comment to the dorm’s resident assistant, FIRE said.

The shouter apologized to the couple that same evening after being asked to do so by the resident assistant, FIRE said. The shouter claims the comment was a joke and that the matter was resolved after her apology, FIRE said.

FIRE officials acknowledged that they hadn’t spoken to the couple or the resident assistant to get their accounts of the incident, but said that no one had stepped forward to challenge their description.

On Wednesday, Sandy Weintraub, the UO’s director of student conduct and community standards, emailed the student to inform her the charges had been dropped, according to FIRE.

Weintraub wrote that the student’s behavior “may be a violation” of the UO’s student conduct code.

“However, I am choosing not to take action with this report at this time,” he wrote. “The charges against you will be removed and you will not have a student conduct record for this incident.”

Weintraub’s letter provided no further explanation as to why the charges were being dropped. “Please know that I expect you to represent the University of Oregon well and abide by the Student Conduct Code,” he wrote. “Any future incidents involving misconduct will likely lead to consequences.”

The Register-Guard reported on the incident and on FIRE’s objections on Tuesday, as did uomatters, a blog run by UO economics professor Bill Harbaugh. The case subsequently received attention on several popular websites among college students, including Reddit and BroBible.

FIRE characterized the UO’s decision to drop the charges as a victory for free speech.

“We’re pleased that the student is no longer weighed down by these chilling disciplinary charges and can focus on her education,” said Peter Bonilla, director of FIRE’s individual rights defense program, in a prepared statement. “UO’s quick action here illustrates something we’ve long recognized at FIRE: Universities are seldom able to defend in public what they try to do in private.”

FIRE also urged the UO to alter the “overly broad” harassment policies in its student conduct code which the group said infringe on free speech.

On Tuesday, UO spokeswoman Julie Brown told The Register-Guard that the university believes its student conduct code is “appropriate and doesn’t conflict with free speech laws.” She said Thursday that the university stood by that statement.